Please be aware that the following update contains spoilers to the book.
Since July 22nd, 2021, I have been working on House of Leaves and let me be the first to tell you, it has not been easy. If you want to join me in reading this story, you can find it on Amazon as well as Barnes&Noble.
Where am I at?
At this moment, I am on page 120 which puts me 13 pages into Chapter 9. Lucky number 13. In the story, the articles/ main story line are discussing Expedition 3 where those on the expedition into the unknown hallway have made it to the bottom of the staircase. Supposedly, the staircase took 3 days to descend, but it also seems as if time is distorted in the hallway. The narrator also seems to be highly unreliable, so I am unsure how much weight to put into what the articles are saying.
There is a lot of suspense starting to build up in the articles too, but it still cannot compare to the suspense in the endnotes/ second story line. The suspense from the articles surrounds the idea that the explorers are lost inside the maze of continuous hallways. This idea was only mentioned briefly before moving forward to how the exploration has supposedly effected those that have traveled into the hallway. However, it has been heavily implied that a rescue mission takes place shortly after Expedition 3 because of a knocking sound throughout the house that I am assuming sounded like morse code for SOS.
The second story line’s narrator offers more suspense in terms of foreshadowing. The effects of the articles and person are clearly effecting him, but to the point that I am unsure of if something supernatural is going on or if the narrator is just slowly going insane. At this moment, I am wondering if it is something supernatural. He keeps mentioning a sound and feeling like he is being stalked – so I wonder if something came out of hallway the articles are talking about.
What is going on?
In terms of format, the book has gotten really weird. Because of the different font types to distinguish which story line is in, it has been easy to understand which story line is going on, however it has been hard to remember which story line has given what information as the two tie together in awkward places. While it sometimes helps progress the story, trying to go back to figure out what is going on and get my bearings is extremely difficult. It doesn’t help that both narrators seem extremely unreliable especially in terms of their times.
The format of the text is also getting really wonky. Since the beginning house has been highlighted blue, but now some font is red and struck-out. The endnotes also have been appearing in boxes or on the sides of pages rather than at the bottom. What I am finding really disorienting though that that the endnotes numbers seem to be repeating. I think #146 has been used at least three times in the last three pages and so far no endnote has gone above #151. The endnotes are not repeating though and start back up randomly like #141 jumps to #143 to #146 to #147 – #151 back to #143 – #146 back to #140.
I have been trying to see if there is some kind of pattern, but so far I have found nothing – nor even a connection linking the two stories besides the fact that the narrator is sharing the articles with us, the reader, and commenting (more like journaling) about his life and different information he has found that he hopes allows the articles to make more sense, but is really just making him sound insane (or like something major is going on in a supernatural sense).
How am I enjoying it?
I feel like I am going out of my mind. While I am enjoying it, my head also is hurting from trying to understand what is going on. I cannot seem to connect anything together and feel just short of making a yarn connecting board like in TV in my frustration. In honesty, if I did do such a thing I am not even sure of where I would start.
As a result, I feel exhausted after reading the book no mater how many pages I read at a time. The other night I read the same page five times before rereading the previous three pages to see if I missed something. The next morning I reread a paragraph from that night before putting the book down still confused.
I also cannot believe that I am only like 16% done with the book even though I started about a month ago. It feels like I should have already passed the halfway point at least, but when tracking my progress I’m not better than where I was a couple weeks ago making this journey super long. I am even really engaged in the story lines. I want to know what happens and I am trying to read in all spare time I have, but its like I’m running in place. My mind is winded just turning the page!
Rosey Reviews 